Reading Time: 3 minutesWith all the excitement about Black Panther, I caught up with Derrick Kibisi, founder and director of Talking Films. This is the Ugandan production house that worked on Disney’s Queen of Katwe and coordinated the aerial shots gave the Marvel film some of its breathtaking portrayals of Wakanda (the fictional civilisation in Black Panther). I

Reading Time: 5 minutes My last two meetings with Arinaitwe Rugyendo – one of the founders of the Red Pepper Publications involved urging him (for a journalistic fellowship that he eventually was too busy to apply for) to offer a defense of the tabloid as a form of contemporary Ugandan journalism. Indeed, defend the quintessential test of

Reading Time: 2 minutesReaders of this blog deserve an apology for the long period between posts. This often happens when I am traveling. This summer it meant a two-month long stay at home in Uganda, which tends to be crowded with work, home visits and scouting for new projects. My partnership on TV/Film is one such enterprise. It

Reading Time: 3 minutesHere is a post from July 2005 It is twelve years since I wrote this. But you may find it familiar if you follow the debate over succession in Uganda which has pivoted to a chattering over the age of President Yoweri Museveni Niccolo Machiavelli Visits Kyankwanzi The Monitor (Kampala) OPINION July 3, 2005 Posted

Reading Time: 3 minutesSteady Progress? Matters are coming to a head in Uganda’s oil and gas sector with more motion than in the past year. The Ugandan authorities launched their FEED for oil producing region and shuttle negotiations have been taking place between Tanzanian and Ugandan negotiators on the Hoima-Tanga pipeline. The pipeline negotiations, according to those involved,

Reading Time: 5 minutesMost of Queen of Katwe (QoK), Uganda’s “Slumdog Millionaire” was shot in South Africa. The movie will delight Ugandans who know the story of Phiona Mutesi quite well. She is the girl from Katwe. This is one of the largest of the 67 slums in the capital Kampala. Against some serious odds Mutesi made a

Reading Time: 5 minutesI was recently in conversation with two friends. Online of course. Both are lawyers under 33 with promising careers in public service. One in fact plans to run for president one day. Despite the fact that their education and early careers have been within the donor funded civil society in Uganda both support the position

Reading Time: 4 minutesWrote this about a week ago ( it never went to publication) Uganda is not withdrawing from Somalia. At least not anytime soon. It is also unlikely to officially end its mission in Central Africa Republic. Rather the last I heard Ugandan peacekeeping is expanding both within the Great Lakes Region, and if one would

Reading Time: 6 minutesDSTV Uganda’s swanky offices in Kololo are a powerful statement of where the money ends up in the television business. As a content carrier the business relies almost entirely on other providers for its survival. However with its successful subscription business DSTV makes most of the money. It is part of a small cluster of